Lund 1 Sterling Lund
American Beauty- A Closer Look at the Shallow Realities behind the
Illusions of Happiness
The 1999 Oscar-winning film, American Beauty, written by Alan Ball and
directed by Sam Mendes, follows the lives of several main characters, each of whom
struggles to conform to a socially acceptable identity. American Beauty focuses on an
extensive set of social controversies that allude to the traditional ideals of American
culture. Movie critic from the Seattle Post, William Arnold calls it, “an
uncompromisingly bleak look at the hollowness of the American Dream.”
The characters in this film are the driving force of the story. Each represents a
specific issue relevant to contemporary life in America (PapJcik 27-28). Lester Burnham
is a 42-year-old man experiencing a mid-life crisis. He feels that he has lost control over
his life and sight of his happiness. His wife and daughter treat him like a loser and the
responsibilities of being a husband, a father and provider, are not enough for Lester. His
wife Carolyn, like many contemporary women, desperately seeks to be perceived by
others as powerful, independent and successful. Because of the historical context in
which women have been oppressed, Carolyn overcompensates for this and in turn
surrenders her happiness and vivacious personality to live a life of materialism.
Their fifteen-year-old daughter Jane is experiencing what I call the teenage
identity crisis. Because of her low self-esteem, she is shy and reserved. Angela Hayes,
Jane’s best friend, offers a different angle on teenage angst by flaunting her sexuality and
physical appearance. She chooses to overly exaggerate these things to combat her fear of
Lund 2 being seen as “ordinary.” At one point in the movie she explains her reasoning for a
sexual escapade she had with a photographer for Elle magazine by bragging, “he’s a
really well-known photographer. It would have been so majorly stupid of me to turn him
down…that’s just how things are in the real world.” An overwhelming majority of young
girls have this distorted concept that sexuality defines them as a person and should be
used as a way to get things they want. In the end, we discover the truth of Angela’s
virginity and realize everything she claimed to have done, were lies she told to feel and
appear “special.”
Colonel Frank Fitts, a retired United States Marine, illustrates the issue of
repressed homosexuality. He is overtly angry and takes his frustrations out physically on
his son, Ricky. Each of these characters represents the ways in which people pose as
masked illusions in order to feel accepted in society. Ricky Fitts, however, is the only
character who is not wrapped up in the deceptions of suburbia. Looking through the lens
of a video camera for most of the movie, he is able to see past his neighbor’s obscured
lives and expose the hidden beauty of bare and naive truth.
Bouncing off these characters and the social issues they represent, this paper will employ the use of both the visual perspective as well as Marxist perspective to divulge the issues that arise with people’s zealous attempt to conform to a specific set of dominating ideologies in suburban America. To understand how these theories apply to the film it is first imperative to break down the theories themselves. Much of the information that is fed to people is done so through the use of mediated visual imagery. Laura Mulvey, a British film theorist, argues that the “visual pleasure theory encourages viewers to look Lund 3 pleasurably at female images via the male gaze” (Sellnow 144). This implies that viewers are not just watching images but “gazing” upon them as if they are objects. Most of the time, but not always, the act of “gazing” involves a man being the looker and the women as the object. According to Mulvey’s article, “Visual Pleasure Theory and Narrative Cinema,” “The straight set of male sexual feelings and desires are directly responsible for the decision and choices made in regards to what images are used in cinema” (6-­‐7). Throughout the movie Lester fantasizes about his teenage daughter’s friend,
Angela Hayes. He dreams of her naked and covered in rose petals. These visions are
meant to illustrate Lester’s re-discovery of passion and beauty in his life by using an
image in the interest of the male gaze. The male gaze is one of the two ways in which
concepts of visual pleasure theory can be applied to this film. The other is voyeurism,
which refers to the pleasure someone experiences when watching people without them
knowing. Typically voyeurism has a negative connotation, but Mendes toys with this
concept. Ricky Fitts is first seen as a strange character, he videotapes people without them
knowing, specifically Jane and her family. He finds that in filming people, he is able to
capture the truth. Throughout the film, scenes are shown from his camera’s perspective.
His videos capture a straightforward reality that pushes the audience to see things beyond
what they appear. Because Ricky’s voyeurism is the only honest thing not tainted by
superficiality, the audience is driven to accept the voyeuristic ways as a relief from the
“puppet like” performances of the other characters.
Lund 4 Staying within the visual perspective, Roland Barthes, a French literary critic,
developed the idea that signs or symbols could communicate messages. He explained that
signs carry connotations, meaning they can represent something more than just their
literal appearance. Throughout the movie, the color red is used to convey anger, love,
passion and sex. The Burnham’s red front door “symbolizes what is happening behind it,
in the lives of those living in it” (Barbieri). For Carolyn red is meant to symbolize
passion, and because she cuts her red roses often, this symbolizes her cutting away her
passion in life. For Lester, seeing Angela covered in red rose petals indicates love and
sexuality. Red pops up in almost every scene as a way to represent the overall
understanding of how the characters feel.
American Beauty is also layered with symbols that are iconic to the American
perspectives on success and beauty. For example, the Burnham’s house is large and well
manicured. They have a nice car and the curbs are lined with rose bushes. The viewer
immediately recognizes these things to mean wealth and achievement. According to the
Marxist theory, which I will talk about next, these images are considered economic
metaphors. Sellnow describes these metaphors to be anything that represents a
perspective on a culture’s structure of norms, values and practices (Sellnow 73).
When analyzing from the Marxist perspective it is essential to reveal the ways in
which popular culture text “reinforce status quo power structures as the norm.” (Sellnow
71). The most important aspects of the Marxist perspective are the concepts of ideology
and hegemony. Ideologies aim to define a unanimous perception about the way things are
and manipulate assumptions on the way things should be. These ideas dictate what is
socially acceptable and what is not. Hegemony refers to a widespread ideology that
Lund 5 empowers a dominating social group. These groups can be defined by socioeconomic
status, gender, race and sexual orientation (Sellnow 72).
From a Neo-Marxist perspective I have explored the problems of materialism and
exemplified the workings of hegemony that operate in several ways throughout the film
including: men over women, young over old, and straight over gay.
The idea that everything in a society is based on concrete economic and physical
conditions is known as Marxist materialism. Lester’s wife, Carolyn is extremely
concerned with how others perceive her and has based her success and happiness on the
accumulation of material items. She has become so obsessed by the idea of Marxist
materialism that she has lost her vivacious and loving personality that Lester fell in love
with. In one scene Lester tries to passionately kiss his wife while holding a beer bottle.
Carolyn realizes that Lester is going to spill the beer on the couch and pulls away. Lester
gets upset and responds “it’s just a couch,” but Carolyn exclaims, “it’s not just a couch,
it’s a four thousand dollar sofa upholstered in Italian silk.” Lester tells her “this is not
life,” it’s just stuff and you’ve made it more important to you than living.” Her desire to
be noticed as a successful individual, is so consuming that she even wears business
clothes while working in the garden. Carolyn stands for the struggle women face to be
considered successful and how trying to define an identity based on having expensive
things will only provide a hollow and lonely life.
Lester chooses to ignore such materialism and pursues happiness outside of what
society dictates. This acts as the driving force that positions the film to be a subverted
oppositional message, meaning that it outright opposes the dominant ideology of Marxist
materialism. However, despite this, Lester’s actions reinforce the ideology of male
Lund 6 hegemony over women. He lacks to see the bigger picture in which Carolyn has been
forced to work harder in order to be recognized as successful. He, as a man, is capable of
rebelling against the system as he sarcastically jokes “let’s just sell our souls,” when
Carolyn is telling him to stop being so dramatic and just do what the job asks of him. His
apparent denial of society’s structured containment is a privilege he can have as a male.
When Lester quits his job and starts living the life of a teenager, regularly smoking pot,
working out in the garage everyday while listening to loud music, and taking a job at a
fast food restaurant, he is seen as a hero. However if the roles were reversed and the wife
were to do that, she would risk being seen as selfish and ungrateful for the life that has
been “given” to her.
On the surface Lester would appear to be living an ideal life, but as movie critic,
William Arnold points out, this film reveals a sad “hollowness” of the “American
Dream” and the corruption of corporate America. Lester has worked as a writer for a
magazine agency for 14 years. In the past month, a younger man, Brad, has taken a
position as an efficiency expert, who Lester says “is basically there for the company to be
justified in firing people.” Shortly after starting the job, Brad smugly asks all of the
workers to write out a list of their duties and how they feel they individually contribute to
the company. In doing this, Brad will be able to determine whether someone is valuable
or expendable. This suggests that there is no such thing as “job security”; if a newer,
younger and more “efficient” worker comes along, then others are left to be determined
valuable or not. Brad casually refers to the situation as “just business.” This embodies
how people are trained to accept things that are morally twisted as a probable and normal
aspect of business. This also demonstrates the hegemony of a younger more able-bodied
Lund 7 individual, Brad, to have power over an older man, Lester, despite his years of dedication
and loyalty to the company.
Lester responds to Brad’s request of what he believes his job consists of with the
blatant truth. He writes, and I am removing some of the vulgarities, “My job consists of
basically masking my contempt for the jerks in charge, and at least once a day retiring to
the men’s room where I fantasize about a life that doesn’t so closely resemble hell.”
Brad shrugs and says “Whatever, management wants you gone by the end of the day.”
Lester, feeling confident in his rebellion, threatens Brad with a sexual harassment suit if
he isn’t offered a proper severance package. Since Brad symbolizes the arrogant upstart
being a puppet for corporate corruption, and Lester the “little people,” his lewd actions
are applauded for standing up to the system.
Colonel Fitts puts on a stereotypical tough guise, meaning a tough appearance or
manner. He takes his anger out physically on his son Ricky, and his wife has clearly
become mentally and emotionally checked out from the loveless relationship with her
husband. Throughout the film Fitts emphasizes the importance of being manly to Ricky
by showing little emotion, being aggressive and exhibiting a disdain for homosexuals. In
the climax of the film there is a misunderstanding that leads Fitts to believe Lester is
paying Ricky for sexual favors. In response to this he beats up Ricky and storms over to
Lester’s house. The audience is thrown off guard when Fitts does not beat Lester up too,
but instead kisses him. Lester respectively denies him and an embarrassed Fitts abruptly
leaves. He later returns, however, to shoot Lester in the head as to make sure he could not
reveal what had happened. This exposes a deeply rooted issue in society’s perception on
homosexuality, specifically in the military, and the hegemony of straight over gay.
Lund 8 Thankfully since this film, our military has succeeded in repealing the “Don’t Ask Don’t
Tell” policy, but nonetheless this film still represents the severity to which some people
feel the need to hide their sexuality.
After being shot, Lester recounts his life. He remembers his grandmother’s hands
and the color of the maple leaves that lined his childhood street. He sees his daughter
Jane and his wife Carolyn. In death, Lester finally realizes all the beauty in his life that he
chose to ignore.
American Beauty, as the tagline states “looks closer” at the realities behind
traditional ideals in American Culture and opens people’s minds to recognize issues that
can arise in trying to conform to a shallow mold of idealness. Whether it be living a life
defined by material wealth or a life of repressed identity, people can get so caught up in
trying to commercialize an image of “normality” that they lose sight of truth.
I would like to end by recalling one of the most famous scenes in the movie,
when Ricky shows Jane a video he had filmed of a plastic grocery bag blowing in the
wind. The bag reveals the unseen beauty of the wind as it is given life, spinning and
whirling through the air. Ricky describes it to be “dancing with him like a kid begging to
play.” He stood for 15 minutes watching something that most people wouldn’t even
notice, and it was that day that he said he “realized that there was this entire life behind
things.” Most people, like the other characters, fail to see the existing beauty that
surrounds us. By superficially narrowing our perceptions, we succumb to a bleak and
constrained life of always trying to obtain a manufactured version of happiness. Allowing
ourselves to recognize and appreciate the hidden beauty of the world, means allowing
ourselves to be truly happy.
Lund 9 Sterling Lund Work Cited
American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch,
Mena Suvari. Dreamworks, 1999. DVD
Arnold, William. “Beauty Finds Brilliance at the Heart of bleakness.” Rev. of American
Beauty Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 24 Sep.1999. Web. 01 Dec. 2011.
Barbieri, Annalisa. “Red Alert.” New Statesmen. 21 Aug. 2006. Web. 02
Dec. 2011.
Isthemoviegood. Youtube, Prod. American Beauty Official Trailer. 2011. Web. 2011
Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema." Screen 16.3 (1975): 618.
PapJcik, Jessica. “The Rhetoric of American Beauty: A Value Analysis.” Diss. U of
Arkon, 2006. Web. 3 Dec. 2011.
Sbx1720. Youtube, Prod American Beauty, My job Consists of. 2010. Web. 01 Dec
2011
Sellnow, Deanna. The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Media
Texts. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2010. Print
Woosieproductions. Youtube, Prod Lester’s Rose Petal Dream American Beauty
Classic. Web. 03 Dec. 2011.